Throughout my time here I've noticed a lot of garage pictures have various road and mountain bikes, so I wanted to see who all is into cycling and what kind...

I've done it all, started off in mountain in Pennsylvania, then got into BMX/Freestyle when I got to Texas. Now, my job has a road bike team and I did the MS150 with them last fall in Mississippi. I'm officially hooked.

Since a good finish in the MS150 I've taken a break, as I only had 6 weeks of training beforehand and committed all of my free time to getting into shape. We have an event next month already in Oklahoma, so I have to get back into the routine.

I'm going to start off with an hour of elliptical training every day, and also adjust my diet to higher amounts of carbohydrates a few a days before each big cycling session.

I've picked up some in-ride tricks to prevent cramps and maintain endurance, such as eating ant-acid, drinking pickle juice, eating peanut butter, etc. What else have you found to be successful?

Any other advice in how to get back into the routine, and what the best diet is?

 

Power bar makes some gel packs that are good for maintaining your electrolites....I use those alot, that and peanut butter. Bannanas are a good way to keep from cramping, although they aren't an instant cure. you have eat them regularly. thats what I normally do. any pics of the bike?

 

I've had the gel packs... I guess they grow on you but boy is the texture terrible.

I'll post pics when I get to work, I've rebuilt this laptop recently and don't have a picture of the bike. It's a '09 Fuji Roubaix, largest bike I could find at the time in the time that I needed it, 64cm.

I've also been considering changing the chain ring out to something bigger, I find myself riding in the top gears at normal cadence, so I'd like to get some more speed out of it if at all possible. I have longer legs and can max out the gears relatively easily.

 

I don't know if you've seen it, but here's the Mtn. bike thread:

https://teamspeed.com/forums/off-top...=mountain+bike

For training, I swim for an hour m,w,f, eliptical for an hour and light weight training t,th,s and ride on sunday. I usually have some cereal for breakfast with some fruit, pop a gel right after, get ready and head out. Keep hydrated with water and pop 1 to 2 more gels on the ride. When I get back I have a tall glass of milk with whey protein and a banana and slink down in the hot tub for 20 minutes. Then get out and make myself a meal. I don't know if this is the best diet, but it's certainly worked well for me.

 

Consider Gatorade's Endurance formulate. thats the name o fit. built with low glycemic fuel, and i find it very much helped with cramps.
i would recommend not overdoing it with carbohyrdrates. protein and fat are important fuel sources, and sometimes overdoing it with carbs isnt necessary during initial base period training.

not that it matters, ive been racing for quite a number of years, about 9 state TT championships in the last 4.

happy to help in any other way possible.
welcome back.